Developing entrepreneurial mindsets in UK secondary school students
This project explores best practice in supporting and nurturing entrepreneurial mindsets in secondary school students, who are engaged on performing arts courses.
This collaboration between Dr Michelle Phillips (RNCM), Professor Karen Burland (University of Leeds) and Dr Kate Blackstone (postdoctoral researcher), focusses on what higher education institutions can learn from training in entrepreneurship and enterprise (defined by QAA 2018, hereafter ‘enterprise’) in pre-Higher Education (HE) performing arts training. The project investigates existing activities in schools that could be classified as enterprise education, teacher perceptions of, and motivations for, such teaching approaches (in school and HE), the impact of enterprise education (EE) on pupils, and the relevance for current HE agendas (e.g. educational gain).
This project involves the collection of qualitative and quantitative data, alongside case study exemplars of best practice from schools in North England which deliver performing arts courses. These methods will provide rich insights with much to offer the wider HE sector in demonstrating leading enterprise education. Uncovering applied examples from diverse educational settings can provide much-needed insight into how performing arts education pre-HE can incorporate skills important to entrepreneurial mindsets and highlight the potential impact of EE on young people. While this work is developing in Wales (e.g., Penaluna et al., 2020), there is little work in UK schools.
Developing entrepreneurial mindsets at a young age has the potential to build young people’s confidence and self-efficacy in relation to their skills and preferred/desired forms of working in ways that will enhance their career readiness and employability while meeting the needs of employers and the economy (see e.g., Rodriguez & Lieber, 2020). The project will also provide valuable insights for teacher support and associated pedagogies (Hardie et al, 2020).
Specific knowledge about enterprise education in performing arts is not prevalent. Explorations of enterprise education in secondary school contexts exist in parts of the UK (e.g. work in Wales, Penaluna et al., 2020) and internationally (e.g. Blimpo & Pugatch, 2021; Kim et al, 2020), but little has focused on the performing arts, or looked at secondary education contexts holistically. Insights into this will provide exemplars of how this work can be developed in schools and help creative arts HEIs to enhance their approaches to enterprise education by aligning their in-, co- and extra-curricular content.
The results of this project will shape enterprise education in university and conservatoire degrees, to best and better meet the needs and prior experiences of students as they enter HE. The findings of this research will also help educators in creative disciplines to develop their skills and knowledge around EE; plan their admissions processes (including contextual admissions, e.g., a musician applicant may not be from a background which has enabled them to pay for private instrumental lessons, but may have a very developed entrepreneurial mindset, and exciting ideas for the future of the music industry); and inform future research activities.
